Johannesburg Temple

Johannesburg Temple

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Its been a while!

Good Morning everybody. Being up in the Northeast is sweet, but not when it comes to e-mailing every week. We come to the library to e-mail and most of the time the internet connection is offline for some reason. Probably because we are in a village far away from the city. Anyways got a lot to say, so here we go.

Last post I mentioned we had a baptism coming up on the 2nd of March. His name is Cliff Mashthola and it went very well. He has progressed very well in the gospel and we were super happy to see him baptized. I see good things for him in the future.

We had Zone Conference on the 4th of March, so we made the five hour trip down to Johannesburg on the 3rd. We stopped along the way for a hike, but the Zone Leaders forgot where it was, so we continued on. We pulled ahead of the other cars because the other missionaries in the car said they knew how to get to the Mission offices. We got lost and ended up in a different town where it got pretty sketchy. Luckily, one of the Elders in the car served in the area, so he knew the way. We made it there safe and had a good dinner in downtown Joburg. We then went to the mission home and spent the night. The next morning we got up super early and made our way to the chapel. Zone conference went very well. I always love hearing from President and Sister Omer, as well as the assistants to the President. We have a very young mission; about 40% of the missionaries are out under four months, so we did a lot of training. After all was said and done, we headed back to the Northeast.

We have had some great weeks in Modjadji and Matupa. We are averaging over twenty lessons per week, which is awesome. So on March the 7th we were on our way to see a new investigator in the mountains. One the way we were driving on a dirt road with some tall grass and all of the sudden we were driving in a swamp. We ended up getting stuck pretty bad and could not get out. A few guys were walking by and started to help us. No luck! The wheels were in a foot of mud and water. Elder and Sister Butler, senior couple, called us to see where we were. I told them the predicament we were in. They had been having some bad feelings and that is why they called us. By this time it was starting to get dark, so we had to get out of there very soon. Elder Butler said, after I hang up the phone say a prayer as a group. As soon as we hung up, we said a prayer and asked for help. We then gave the Bokkie another try and it started to gain traction and within minutes the bokkie was unstuck and we were on our way. It was pitch dark by then and after two hours of struggling, we made it out because we had faith to ask our Father in Heaven. The Butlers knew we were in trouble and they acted on the prompting. Who knows what would have happened if they had not done so?

I leave you with my testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. This is the Lord's church in the last days. Being a full time missionary and putting all my trust in the Lord has been a learning experience for me. Learning to trust God and rely on Him is something that comes overtime, but without Faith will not happen. I know that God lives and loves each and everyone of us. He is there and always will be. This is my Testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Elder Segil

Some Photos of the last couple weeks: Brother Mashthola's baptism day, teaching, my area, the effects of being stuck and Krugar. (remember to click on photo to enlarge)